The “space scientist” who, for two years, helped the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) formulate its opposition to the Sethusamudram project has turned out to be just like the Sangh’s argument — a fraud.

The RSS said today that it would “remove” him as pracharak after an investigation by The Sunday Express showed that Puneesh Taneja, who is said to have access right up to Sarsanghchalak K S Sudershan, allegedly forged his credentials.

He passed himself off as “Dr” Puneesh Taneja and flaunted visiting cards and stationery identifying himself as “Senior Research Scientist/Additional Secretary, Department of Space, Prime Minister’s Office, South Block, New Delhi.”

These cards, obtained by The Sunday Express, are embossed with the logo of the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Sources said Taneja told the RSS that he was on a two-year leave from the Government and that he was with ISRO. There are red faces in the saffron brotherhood because many within the RSS were taken in by these cards and even saw Taneja as a “linkman” between the RSS and the UPA Government.

So much so that he was made a fulltime pracharak in 2005 and began operating from an RSS flat in Noida.

“ISRO has no relation with this man. We have not heard of him at all. The Additional Secretary, Department of Space, is an IAS officer. He is S V Ranganath, he sits in Bangalore. Also, the Sethusamudram project has no connection with ISRO,” ISRO director for information S Krishnamurthy told The Sunday Express in Bangalore.

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